


Three Hands

by shittymuse



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Universe, Content Warning for Self Harm (equivalent to events shown in canon), Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 05:12:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2495717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shittymuse/pseuds/shittymuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small series of headcanons based on the assumption that after Eren appeared as a titan shifter, the Vets would connect the dots and recognize if there was one, there could be more, and their subsequent reactions to the news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Hands

I.

Levi sat in the chair beside the small window of his room and watched the world outside. It was late and there was nothing to see, but he found something calming in the lack of stimulus from the pitch black shadows of the night. He held his hands in his lap, tracing his thumbs back and forth across the palms, willing his mind to quiet.

_Are these the hands of a monster?_

The thought had kept him awake all night. Sleep regularly eluded him but the phrase had become a plague that night and made any wish for shut eye hopeless.

It was not completely improbable. That was the worst of it. His hands told a history of violence in their maze of heavy calluses and hair thin scars. They were hands all too used to bruised knuckles, broken fingers, and bloody palms. They were the hands of a fighter, and the red stained hands of a killer.

_Are they the hands of a monster?_

He was strong, agile, always had been. Enough to surprise nearly everyone who had met him. Superhuman, he had been called, too often for comfort.

It could be true.

Levi clenched his hands into fists and closed his eyes.

He did not want to know.

  
  


II.

"Are you ready?" Hange asked. Sounds of agreement rang out from her squad, and she beamed. This may have been her strangest request of them in the middle of the night, but they had come without questions or complaint anyway, and it meant the world to her.

She sat on a crate in the middle of the otherwise empty courtyard, her squad waiting in a ring around the edge in full gear. She leaned forward with her elbows braced on her knees, and laced her fingers together.   

The report had been very clear. The boy could shift into a titan at will. All it took was a little push. Hange had been ordered to leave him alone, for now, and she had reluctantly agreed to it. She had not been forbidden from all possible tests, however.

There was still a thousand questions that needed answering about the titans, each more sinister than the last, but the appearance of the boy had managed to answer one.

It was no longer a question of if, but rather of _who_.

Hange unlaced her fingers and brought her hand to her mouth. Without hesitation, she sunk her teeth deeply into her palm.

There was information to be gained, and she would have it, no matter the price.

 

III.

Erwin shifted the papers on his desk, patiently searching for the old diagram he would have sworn he had just laid out two seconds before. His fingers closed around the edge, and he shook his head, pulling it to the top of the stack of reports with a sigh. He traced the lines of the formation with the back of his pen, memorizing them again as he rubbed at his temple with his other hand, urging his fatigue away.

He was not fond of surprises. He had made a career out of anticipating them, and correcting accordingly, in the heat of the moment if necessary. Being able to respond to them did not did not make him like them any more, however.

He was aware there was only so much one could plan for, and no matter how hard he tried, life had always found a way of pulling the rug out from under his feet. It was not in his nature to accept defeat so easily though. He would respond in turn by planning even more, for every possibility this time, no matter how unlikely. And, if that plan did not work, he would plan again, and again, and again ...

An angry half moon of teeth marked the back of his hand, visible in the flickering candlelight as he worked.

It had been a possibility.

Erwin wished he could say he was not disappointed.

 

 


End file.
